The statistics, which Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay withheld until after the state election to avoid politicising the data, were released on Monday and compared the 12 months to September 2014 with the 12 months to September 2013 data in the Ballarat police service area and showed a 30.6 per cent increase in drug offences.

The raw offences dataset show an overall increase in crime by 0.2 per cent or 25 offences.

Other crime (justice procedures, intervention order breaches, stalking, drunks and deceptions) increased by 110 offences and contributed to the overall increase of offences. 

However, robbery, assault, assault excluding family violence, property damage, burglary, theft from motor vehicle and theft of motor vehicle offences all saw a significant decrease from the same period last year.

Ballarat Police Senior Sergeant Peter Carey said he would only comment on the 'population per 100,000' dataset for Ballarat, which showed an overall drop in crime by 1.4 per cent or 140.6 offences.

Senior Sergeant Carey said the major challenge for Ballarat police was combating the ice problem in the city.

"The word on the lips of everyone in the community is tackling the drugs issue, more specifically ice," he said. 

"From our police perspective, we will continue to target those people who are dealing with ice. It's a driver of a lot of crime, family violence, robberies and theft from motor vehicles. 

"Certainly if we can get a whole community approach to tackling that, we should see a continued drop in crime across the board." 

Senior Sergeant Carey said a divisional van had pulled over a vehicle on Sunday night and 10 grams of ice had been found.

"That will go to increasing those (drug crime) stats again," he said.

An increase in other crime pointed to an increase number of deception offences where Paywave ATM cards had been used, Senior Sergeant Carey said.

He said "strong resources" of the burglary team, targeting of recidivist offenders and campaigns including "I Wish I Locked It" had lead to the decrease in residential burglaries, of nearly 8.9 per cent in the per 100,000 population. 

The number of family violence assault offences remained largely the same, with just one offence less than the same period last year.

"We are one of the first (police) stations to set up a family violence unit," Senior Sergeant Carey said.

"We now look at recidivist offenders and look at repeat victims.

"When you are doing the job well there is an increased confidence within the community that when you report a matter it will be tended to and investigated."

david.jeans@fairfaxmedia.com.au